Welcome to Autumn!

Greetings everyone!  I realize it has been a while since I wrote on here and I'm sorry about that.  Time has really flown the past several weeks!  And the weather has changed quite a bit too!  Since my last post, we went from a summer heat wave to temperatures today struggling to get out of the 50's!  What a change!  In a way, these fall like conditions we have in Wisconsin right now is perfect to welcome in autumn with!  Autumn officially arrived to Wisconsin around 4:04 A.M. CDT this morning. 

This is known as the autumnal equinox, the time when the sun's direct rays cross over the equator into the southern hemisphere, signaling the end of winter there and our summer here.  As a result, you will likely notice the days getting shorter very quickly from day to day as we loose more sunlight thanks to the northern hemisphere tipping away from the sun.  In turn, our daily average temperatures will also start to drop, so I hope you're ready for the cooler conditions!  It's hard to believe the cold and snow of winter is just around the corner!  Until then, have a great day, and I'll try to post here more often!

First Frost?

Recently, I have had to include a mention of a frost or freeze in the forecasts for some of my clients.  While these areas were in the far northern reaches of Wisconsin and Minnesota, it still brings into light that the first fall frost is just around the corner.  The predictability of frost is very important in regards to the harvesting of crops and the lives of your outdoor flowers and plants.  So, when do we typically see our first frost of the season?

According to the NCDC (National Climatic Data Center), the first frost for most of Minnesota and Wisconsin occur during the month of September, while areas like the eastern side of Wisconsin (south of Green Bay), southern Wisconsin, the Mississippi River Valley of the Coulee Region, and most of Iowa see their first frost in the first two weeks of October.  Granted that these are just the climatic averages, with the given year we're in, when could we see our first frost?  Let's find out!

Below is a listing of various cities and towns in Wisconsin along with three dates behind each.  The first column of dates represents a 10% probability of a 32 degree temperature (and thus frost) for that location before or on that date.  The second column of dates represents a 50% probability of a frost before or on that date, and the third column of dates represents a 90% probability of a frost before or on that date.

So for a place like Wausau, WI, there is a 10% chance of frost before Sept. 21st, a 50% chance before Oct. 2nd, and a 90% chance before Oct. 13th for the fall of 2010.

I hope this will give you some idea when to expect the first frost of the season in your area.  If there's a place I left out that you would like information on, just post a comment and I will do my best to find the data!

Happy Autumn!